Campus News

Expert on diabetes to present Nelson lecture

By SARA R. SALDI

“Dr. D’Eramo Melkus is such an accomplished researcher with expertise in the health disparities and the delivery of diabetes care, an extremely important topic in health care today.”

Marsha Lewis, dean

School of Nursing

Gail D’Eramo Melkus, the Florence and William Downs
Professor in Nursing Research and director of the Muriel and
Virginia Pless Center for Nursing Research at New York University,
will present the annual Margaret A. Nelson Lecture at 2 p.m. March
28 in 114 Wende Hall, South Campus.

The lecture, “Type 2 Diabetes: Journey from Description to
Intervention,” is free and open to the public.

D’Eramo Melkus has a distinguished body of work in the
field of diabetes. The dissemination and translation of her work
has contributed to reshaping the delivery of diabetes care.

Her significant body of work includes developing and testing
culturally competent models of diabetic care with a focus on
eliminating health disparities in vulnerable populations. She has
consulted with the Indian Health Service, the Centers for Disease
Control, the American Diabetes Association and National Institutes
of Health grant initiatives.

In conjunction with the Diabetes Research and Training Center of
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, she developed and implemented
the first specialty concentration in diabetes care for advanced
practice nurses in the country.

Her current research project is entitled “Diabetes
Self-Management and Support LIVE (Learning in Virtual
Environments): testing the effectiveness of a virtual life
environment on metabolic and psychosocial outcomes in diverse
adults with type 2 diabetes.”

She received her ASN/BS from the University of Bridgeport, her
MS in nursing from Southern Connecticut State University and her
EdD from Columbia University Teacher’s College, Center for
Health Promotion and Disease Prevention.

Marsha Lewis, dean of the UB School of Nursing, says she is
pleased to have D’Eramo Melkus as the Nelson lecturer this
year.

“Dr. D’Eramo Melkus is such an accomplished
researcher with expertise in the health disparities and the
delivery of diabetes care, an extremely important topic in health
care today,” Lewis says.

The Margaret A. Nelson Endowed Lecture has not only enabled the
School of Nursing to attract high-caliber speakers to UB, but also
to open this forum to the public and share this opportunity with
the broader Western New York community.

Margaret A. Nelson, a UB School of Nursing alumna (BS '54 &
MS '58) created this endowed fund to honor her late children, Linda
Nelson Buettner and Bruce Nelson, who died of complications related
to diabetes. The endowment fund was established to invite a
visiting scholar to the UB School of Nursing to educate faculty,
students, staff and the community about prevention, early detection
and management of diabetes and other chronic illnesses.

Nelson also created the endowment to commemorate her life-long
commitment to the nursing field and to acknowledge the significant
impact that a teacher and other community partners can play in the
pursuit of new knowledge and research. Bringing a visiting scholar
serves to benefit nurses, other health care professionals,
educators, parents and other community members who may have an
interest in prevention, early detection and management of diabetes
and other chronic illnesses.

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